1. Field of the Invention
This invention is of use in not only the printing/publication industry which handles ordinary books but also special items regardless of field such as song books and commodity catalogs. Further, because this invention makes it possible to display not only index items but also corporate name, symbol mark, characters or the like, this can be used in every field by using a book itself as a advertising medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally in books whose pages must be divided according to items, such as a dictionary, song book, catalog and the like, index letters on indentations in the pages in the form of a staircase according to items, index letters printed on the margin of each page in the form of a staircase according to items, index letters printed directly on the overlapping edges of the pages of a book according to items and the like are generally used. The index letters on indentations to facilitate search, however have the disadvantage that production cost is increased and production time is extended because a manufacturing step for cutting out is required. The index letters printed on the margin of each page in the form of a staircase has the disadvantage that search thereby is troublesome because no items appear on the edge although no additional manufacturing step is added. The index letters printed directly on the side face has the disadvantage that production cost and production time cannot be reduced because a step for printing items is added after binding, although search thereby is easy. To solve such disadvantages, some books print some index letters directly on the side face, and print the other index letters in margins in the form of a staircase. However, in this case, the step for printing items on the side face after binding cannot be avoided, and therefore it is difficult to reduce production cost and production time. As described above, it is difficult for a book with the conventional indexing means to satisfy the two requirements of ease of search and reduction of production cost and production time.
Although the present invention is applicable for every kind of book, specifically it can be effectively used for a dictionary, song book, catalog and the like whose pages must be divided according to item or category.
An object of the present invention is to provide a book with indexing means having a high retrieval performance and which is easy to produce, at low cost. Print deviations or cutting errors inevitably occur upon printing or binding.
Therefore, another object of the present invention is to provide a book with means to prevent gaps in any character or graphic.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a book with means to be used as an advertising medium, raising its interest to readers.
To achieve the above object, according to an aspect of the present invention, a book is provided with indexing means wherein by printing plural external letters, created by splitting a desired character or graphic evenly, on each of adjacent odd number pages or even number pages on the edge of a book continuously in succession, the desired character or graphic appears on the edge when the book is taken in hand to open.
Further, according to another aspect of the present invention, a book is also provided with indexing means wherein by bonding slips of paper in which the above plural external letters are printed to each of adjacent odd number pages or even number pages on an edge continuously in succession, the desired character or graphic appears on the edge when the book is taken in hand to open.
Still further, the present invention also proposes a book with indexing means mentioned above wherein each of the plural external letters includes the portions of the two bands to the left and right which are immediately adjacent to it in the original character. Thus there is a partial overlap of external letters with those of adjacent odd number pages or even number pages.